Morning Report by Sue Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Morning Report has all the elements of a satisfying romance yet lacks the execution to pull it off. The plot isn’t original but the bigger problem is that it never really goes anywhere. The numerous sex scenes make this feel like erotica despite the attempt at a complicated, angst heavy plot. In the end this is an ok attempt at romance but definitely not one I’d recommend. Continue reading
Our December by Diane Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the second book I’ve read by Diane Adams and her writing style satisfies that itch for light and romantic stories with solid happy endings. Some of the writing is jumbled and the POV jumps around a bit but the backbone of the story and characters are enough for anyone looking for an easy popcorn read. These may not be the most memorable stories but a quick, interesting read is enough sometimes and I’m curious to see where the author goes with this series.
Totally Captivated: Volume 1 by Hajin Yoo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I got this one because of the gorgeous cover art and I have a weakness for mob related yaoi. Since this is pretty popular, there are a ton of stories to choose from. Totally Captivated deals with Ewon, a young twink that gets hijacked into the mob by his ex-boyfriend. Ewon then deals with the daily struggles of being the low man on the mob totem pole while his ex-bf is sleeping with the mob boss; a boss who of course wants Ewon’s ass.
Over at TDB, we hold the belief that the review site is a resource not necessarily an interactive community. It’s nice to have those communities, blogs and sites where you can gather, chit chat and comment back and forth. However, over there we wanted more so a repository of reviews for people to reference and use in their book buying instead of a site that requires a lot of time, effort, and comments. Nothing bad with either one and there is room for both.
Part of the reason for this is that is how I set up my initial LJ site. I never counted on getting readers nor did I really target a lot of readership and promotion. I definitely saw an increase in comments on opinion topics and occasionally someone would pop over to comment on reviews – usually a fellow reviewer if I’d been diligent about commenting on their site in a kind of quid pro quo. That’s fine and actually allowed me to post or not post depending on my own time and interest. I continued to post reviews almost every day.
That same philosophy carries over to the WP site and I do enjoy comments. It’s nice that someone cares enough to say something but a trend I find among a lot of blogs are that
reviews don’t get a lot of comments. There are the huge meta sites that are more communities and offer so many posts that people tend to comment on absolutely everything. These are very interactive sites with tons of visitors, massive book giveaways and so on.
For those of us along the blog reviewing trend, several may get comments on the daily fun posts or the opinion pieces but even their reviews get few comments. Some reviewers have said on twitter that if they don’t get comments, they feel like they’ve failed. I would have given up by now if I felt that way (no snickering from the peanut gallery).
I have to applaud those that carefully tailor their content to be the easiest, the most attractive and the most thought provoking to garner attention and furthermore comments. That’s a special kind of effort and dedication. For my little corner of the world, I’m happy if people stop by, if you want to comment, go at it. If you’re too busy I get that. I can barely keep up with my google reader list (often has 400+ unread posts) so I understand and appreciate people are too busy.
Thank you to anyone who’s taken the time to comment and if you haven’t, well you don’t get cookies but thank you for viewing anyway.
Oh and if you’re some of those who were searching for “Justin Timberlake accident” – you’re SO in the wrong place.
Where the Allegheny Meets the Monongahela by Felicia Watson
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
This is the first book I’ve read by Felicia Watson but I’ll be really interested to see what else she has to offer. WAMM (to abbreviate a real mouthful of a title) is an interesting story that reads fairly quickly. The characters are engaging and the author includes a massive amount of information on the psychology of abuse without ever lecturing to readers. Instead this information is skillfully incorporated into the story without missing a beat. The conflict is mostly internal which should please readers that enjoy angst ridden men. While that descriptor is right up my alley I found some elements kept this story from being a great read for me.
Beyond Reckless by Ava March
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As most have said this is a short, but smoking hot story. Ava March writes absolutely delicious regency romances and this short offering is no different. We’re introduced to Rhys, a young man on this 25th birthday about to come into a large inheritance. He has a thirst for adrenaline and risk, thus his sexual appetite. He meets his lover Martin for a quick, BDSM flavored tryst at a ball.
Continuing the snarky trend of websites, today’s is Go Fug Yourself.
The Fug girls are a duo that are snarky, witty, and out to criticize. They’re funny too and comment on style mostly. They even have a book coming out. Though I’ll admit the book sounds like the usual snark fare, it could be entertaining.
What I like about the site is its easy, popcorn reading. They update way too much (IMO) I can’t ever keep up with sites that do but their twitter commentary is always worth a laugh and the posts I do read are pretty funny. I’m not sure I always “get” style or the various rules about why one celebrity is cute or Fug, but I do like a witty person that wants to comment on it. I find they’re at their best during awards shows. ‘Tis the season!
Commitment Issues by Wynn Wagner
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Commitment Issues is Wynn Wagner’s third book I’ve read. The first I liked a lot while the second didn’t work for me. Although I really want to like CI, it falls too close to the second and not enough of the humor and charm of the first. There is a definite style to Wagner’s writing that will appeal or not appeal to readers so this author may not be for everyone. The story also tends to repeat information often and add in lengthy asides while the main plot wanders all over the place. On the positive side there is a lot of humor and the story is very funny in the few places it doesn’t try so hard. Unfortunately it couldn’t keep my attention and I came close to giving up. Continue reading
One Real Thing by Anah Crow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
One Real Thing is an easy story to read and engaging for the most part. There is a friends turned lovers theme with repressed angst and longing that will play on those lovely romance heart strings of readers. The writing skillfully keeps the characters moving towards each other but once the couple gets together, the story could have ended there. The next 50 pages or so just reiterate how in love the two men are with no real appreciable changes. Nothing much is added to the relationship or the couple, though I was happy to finally get some sexual tension and sex happening. An interesting story but the ending lets it down.
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